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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29241132">Her Mothers Daughter</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/impatientseamstress/pseuds/impatientseamstress'>impatientseamstress</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Queen's Gambit (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alma Weatley, And the friendships Beth has with all her chess boys, Before the Paris Game, Beth loves chess but self-destruction might always be her soulmate, Canonical Character Death, Gen, Grief, Matt and Mike had Beth's back, Mentions of Cleo, Mentions of the aftermath of Mexico, Mourning, The chess community is vast but tiny, The friendship between Alma and Beth is very important to me, they would have known Alma</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 10:20:31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>648</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29241132</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/impatientseamstress/pseuds/impatientseamstress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>It's not Cleo that Beth goes downstairs in Paris for. Its not for booze or the pills or a burgeoning friendship or a desperate desire for company.</p>
<p>It's for the piano.</p>
<p>It's for Alma.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>25</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Her Mothers Daughter</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I watched this series 3 times in a week and I got caught up in what the other players must have thought hearing Beth lost her mother the day of her match against Borgov in Mexico and what they expected when they next faced one another in Paris.<br/>I loved the styling of this show and what a good job they did of portraying Alma and Beth as having a strong relationship.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It's not Cleo that Beth goes downstairs for in Paris. Its not for booze, or the pills, or a burgeoning friendship, or a desperate desire for company.</p>
<p>It's for the piano.</p>
<p>It's for Alma.</p>
<p>She hears the whispers as the game with Borgov draws closer. Beth Harmon, the Americane, the Prodigy, the Queen of the Chessboard.</p>
<p>The woman who played as her adoptive mother died.</p>
<p>Last time she and Borgov faced one another and she lost, implacably, incontrovertibly, as if there was ever a question she would do anything other than lose. Fresh on the heels of defeat Beth had gone back to the room to find Alma Wheatley eyes open and cold to the touch lying in the hotel bed.</p>
<p>Most of the other players did not know Alma. But they knew, in the semi familiar way that all people who run in the same circles do, a smiling dark haired woman beaming with pride at her daughter. Who played piano with a refined beauty and had a fondness for cocktails.</p>
<p>Thank God for Matt and Mike.</p>
<p>The hotel helped of course, took care of the bill and arranged the autopsy. But they were the ones who silenced the rumours that it was Beth under that sheet being wheeled through the hotel lobby. It would have been one hell of a story, the young prodigy who dashed herself against the iron will of the Soviets and when she could no longer win, took her life. </p>
<p>Anyone who spun a tale like that never met Beth Harmon. Or maybe they had. She doesn't know anymore.</p>
<p>Matt and Mike were the reason she had a lift to the airport, why she received low words of Spanish and French condolences from other players, the gentle press of hands from the rare wives and partners who follow the chess route. Why when she found herself in a lift with two Russian players and their matching KGB counterparts she heard the words "Мне очень жаль. Соболезную" and nodded tightly and murmured "Спасибо" in return.</p>
<p>Beth Harmon is glad her mother never heard about her defeat.</p>
<p>But she desperately wishes she had lived long enough to provide comfort. A warm touch. A woman who was as much a friend as a mother. Who arranged their travel plans and supported her even when Beth might as well have been speaking Russian for all she understood of the game. By the time they knew how to deal with one another Beth wouldn't have anyone behind her like that again until Jolene knocks on her door far in her future. </p>
<p>The Queen of Chess flying across the board, a threat in every play. Beth doesn't feel like the queen, she feels like a rook. Ricocheting back and forth across the board and from one self destructive behaviour to another. Harry stabilised her, Benny steadied her, and during the moments when there is nothing but the board in front of her she can lose herself in sixty four black and white squares in the only non self-destructive addiction she has. </p>
<p>Beth Harmon goes downstairs in Paris for a grand piano that no one is playing and drinks for Alma who would have played that piano, Alma who would have drunk champagne and congac and flirted with Frenchmen, Alma who would have gloried in Paris like she did in Mexico. Alma who lied to the school for her and gave her beer and wine and Gibsons and even when she lost the definition of herself as a wife, found a new way to be as a mother. Alma who tried her best and who was just as trapped by her own demons in different ways. And Beth drinks for herself because the only thing as strong as her love of chess is her own self-sabotaging behaviour.</p>
<p>She is her mother's daughter and she has more than one mother.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>The Russian is "My condolences" and "Thank you" I had to google it so my apologies if its not correct.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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